Day 04 - Timna & the Tabernacle Replica

Hello, Friends and Family! Thanks for tuning in again! Today, we took the trip that was intended for yesterday, but had to be delayed because the road was closed. It was definitely worth the wait!!

This morning, we drove two hours south to Timna, the ancient region of Sinai, where the Ten Commandments were given, and where the Israelites wandered for 40 years. Rabbi Rod gave some incredible teachings about what it may have been like for the Israelites during those 40 years, and again, the significance of the desert. It took a major miracle to get God’s people out of Egypt, but it took 40 years to get Egypt out of the people. In the wilderness, they discovered that when you have nothing, you lack nothing, because God becomes you’re everything.

After lunch, we got a teaching on the Ten Commandments that for most of us, was a total paradigm shift. Instead of a list of strict commands from a domineering diety, Rod helped us to see that the Ten Commandments are actually wedding vows between God and his people. Mic drop. Too much to explain here, but the symbolism that accompanies the commandments also accompanies every orthodox Jewish wedding. God’s intention in the Sinai mountains was to take for himself a bride. 

Much to our surprise, there was a Tabernacle set up at Timna, which is perfectly to scale of the Tabernacle that Moses was commissioned by God to build. For the next 40 years, the tabernacle became their center of worship, and the literal, tangible, physical and spiritual dwelling place of the presence of God. It was God’s way of saying, “I am holy, and completely set apart, but I am also right here with you.” 

As we made our way to the bus, it rained on us lightly, which felt like a divine blessing. It rarely rains in the Sinai mountains. 

Shalom.